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ISC Badminton Open, Abu Dhabi

Abu Dhabi: One of the UAE's oldest sporting events, the India Social Centre (ISC) UAE Xchange Open Badminton tournament, will be held from February 2 onwards.

Announcing details of the 33rd edition of this annual event at a press conference here on Sunday evening, ISC President Sudhir Kumar Shetty said around 250 players were expected to take part in the event.

Sudhir Shetty, who is also the COO of UAE Xchange Centre that has been supporting this event for many years and is once again been playing the role of main sponsors, said, "The ISC Open is one of the most prestigious badminton events in the UAE. It is also one of the ISC's premier sporting events as a large number of our own members are involved actively in the game."

"This year the prize money has been doubled to Dh 40,000 and some of the top players have evinced interest in playing here," added Shetty.

"The highlight of the tournament is that this event is open to all players from GCC and also from all over the UAE. We expect national players from Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and Qatar to come here and show their talent. The main objective of this tournament is to inspire the spirit of the game irrespective of nationalities and to provide them with another opportunity to gain more experience," Shetty said.

Abu Dhabi February 20, 2010: Mr. Hari Setiwan of Bahrain emerged as the overall champion in the 33rd UAE-Exchange Open Badminton Tournament held at the ISC premises in Abu Dhabi. Mr Hari walked away with champion trophies in Mens Singles, Mens Doubles, and Mixed Doubles categories.
The tournament which began on February 4, 2010 concluded here on Friday February 19, 2010 with closing ceremony and distribution of prizes to the winners of various tournaments held during the last two weeks under the leadership of ISC Abu Dhabi Sports Division. The tournament with 13 events saw the presence of many renowned players from all over GCC countries. The most exciting matches of the final day of the tournaments were Mixed Doubles, Mens Doubles, Masters Doubles, and Singles Finals. All the matches were electrifying and was a treat to watch.
The closing Ceremony of the Tournament was held at its premises on 19th February at 8:30pm. The Chief Guest on the occasion was Ambassador of Indonesia to UAE HE Mr. Mohd. Wahid Supriyadi. Also present on the occasion were all sponsors, well-wishers, and media persons.

John P. Varghese (ISC Hon Gen. Secretary) welcomed the gathering. In his opening address he said that Open Badminton Tournament has always been the flagship sports event of ISC. Today we are concluding the 33rd ISC Open UAE-Exchange Badminton Tournement and I am extremely delighted to note that the tournament was a grand success in all means. He continued saying that although the tournament was held after a span of three years, a great interest was shown by the local as well as overseas players of GCC and we had an excellent participation of over 200 players in the events. It is worth noting that some of the events like Ladies Doubles, Ladies Singles, Sr. Vetern Doubles were conducted after a long gap in ISC and new events of Masters singles and doubles were introduced.
While congratulating all the participants, he welcomed Hon. Acting President Mr. Koshy Mathew and also chief guest of the day Ambassador of Indonesia to UAE HE Mr. Mohd. Wahid Supriyadi. He expressed his sincere gratitude to all players specially to the sponsors including the main sponsor of the event UAE-Exchange Center Mr. Sujin Koshy representing Mr. Sudhir Kumar Shetty - COO Global who could not be present, Apex Trading (Co-sponsor) Mr. Hisham P.  MD, Mr. K.S. Anatharaman (Grey Mackenzie) and Key Information Technology (Mr. Mathew Varghese) & Emirates National Insurance (Mr. Thomas Varghese ACII) and many support sponsors namely Mr. Amer Husain of Al-Dhabi Scafforlding & Form work Co. Mr. Hari of Majestic Opticals, Mr. S.B. Shetty of Arab Udupi Restaurant Group, Mr. Geroge Varghese of Road Start Rent a Car, Dr. TT Thomas of Lotus Medical Centre, Mr. Hameed of Baniyas Building Materials, Mr. Noohu of Art Establishment, Mr. Prakash of Al Marai Milk Products, Mr. Charles of Oasis Printing Press, Mr. Mohan Cherian of Creative Graphics, Mr. Shaji of Green Car Rental for their relentless support.
He acknowledged the dedication and hard work of Hon. Sports Secretary of ISC Mr. K.M. Santhosh, Asst. Secretary Mr. Gregory and tournament committee members for making this tournament a grand success and congratulated them for achieving the target with flying colours. He also welcomed and expressed his gratitude to Media persons present.
In the absence of Hon. President Mr. Sudhir Kumar Shetty (COO, UAE Exchange), Hon. Vice President Mr. Koshy Mathew delivered the presidential address and congratulated all the players, winners, committee members and sponsors without whose support this tournament would not have been possible.
The Chief Guest, Ambassador of Indonesia to UAE HE Mr. Mohd. Wahid Supriyadi was felicitated with a floral bouquets by Hon. Vice President Mr. Koshy Mathew. All the sponsors were also felicitated by ISC committee members. All the winners were presented with trophies during the prize distribution ceremony on this occasion.
Ms. Roshni Pradeep of ISC who conducted the entire closing ceremony was felicitated with a special prize for conducting the closing ceremony very effeciently
The vote of thanks was evoked by Hon Sports Secretary of ISC Mr. K.M. Santhosh. He was pleased at the presence of chief guest and said: I would like to express our sincere thanks to our chief guest HE Mr. Mohd. Wahid Supriadi, for accepting our invitation to be the chief guest of this evening. We are proud to announce that he was also one among our Tournament Participant. He once again thanked all players, sponsors, tournament committee, ISC officials and finally Media personalities for their wonderful coverage of this tournament.
After the closing ceremony a sumptuous dinner was served to all players, guests, sponsors and media persons. The dinner was sponsored by Mr. Shekar B. Shetty of Arab Udupi Restaurant Group.Following players are the winners in different categories:Men Singles: Hari Setiwan (Bahrain) Winner and Manoj (Qatar) Runner-up
Mens Doubles: Hari/Jafar (Bahrain) Winner and Ragesh/Sybil (UAE) Runner-up
Mixed Doubles: Hari/Bindu emerged winners and Eric Choo/Sherly Ang were declared Runner-up
Over All Champion: Mr. Hari Setiwan (Mens Singles, Mens Doubles, Mixed Doubles) won the special prize from Mr. Hisham of M/s. Apex Trading Abu Dhabi.

He told that he took 6 points in the first set and 11 in the second against Hari Setiawan, and he says he never expected even that much...

What happened with Eric Choo - the 18 year old malaysian who came from Qatar ?
He defeated Manoj and Alex ( last years Qatar champ ), in semis and finals resp. at the Qatar Badminton Grand Prix 2010, last month.
I was wondering how he lost to Manoj, at Abu Dhabi in the semi finals.

There are no Badminton Association in UAE because they need at least 40 locals arab to sign a petition to start an association & they can find 40 among 4million locals...

All players are expat, 95% active players are Indian...

i can't beliove it.no badminton azzociation in uae? for comparison there are nearly 7 million people in UAE and there are less people in denmark yet the danish kick azz in the world of badminton. something must be wrong. and to only have mostly indians who play the sport?

i can't beliove it.no badminton azzociation in uae? for comparison there are nearly 7 million people in UAE and there are less people in denmark yet the danish kick azz in the world of badminton. something must be wrong. and to only have mostly indians who play the sport?

bro,you're making it sound like badminton is tabooed in the middle east!
if badminton is not even being played by the locals over in the uae,then don't you think the y hsould start intorducing and playing the game? just reading that the game is almost non-existent in the middle east makes me wonder what other things are tabooed in that part of the world?
imagine also,i know it's freakin' hot in the middle east, year round, thus playing an inddoor sport like badminton,in an air conditioned hall,would make sense. don't they have a gazilllion bundle of oil money stored? what are they gonna do with all of those money anyway?

Eric is only junior state player of Malaysia & setiawan is national backup player of Indonesia... huge different of level

I might be going to work in Doha in the future..

I heard court there are overcrowded 30players in ONE court?

HUGE difference in level in SINGLES,
but eric played 20 all deuce , both sets of Mixed Doubles, with his MOM... as his partner, who is over 45 years old. , against Setiawan in the XD finals.
But lost..

And yes,
Badminton is not at all popular among the natives, in the middle east.
Mostly all of them who play here are Indians, including me.
Even when we say Qatar vs Bahrain, it means indians in Qatar vs Indians in Bahrain.. LOL :P
SERIOUSLY !!

But I have to say that there are a LOT of junior indonesian players getting groomed up, in Qatar. Plus a lot of phillipinos.

And by conducting tournaments like these, these guys are trying to attract the natives into the sport, to make it more popular.

It is true that its not popular among the natives, but IT IS GROWING.

For example, initially when Qatar conduction Junior Qatar open, there were merely 100 entries, but this year, it rised to 614 entries.
Thats huge.